Research on returned samples can provide ground truth for the study of the geological evolution history of the Moon. However, previous missions all collected samples from the near side of the Moon, which is significantly different from the far side of the Moon in terms of the thickness of the lunar crust, magma activity, and composition. Therefore, the samples from the far side of the Moon are of great significance for a comprehensive understanding of the history of the Moon. China’s Chang’e-6 (CE-6) probe has successfully landed on the lunar far side and will return samples in the coming days. With the precise location of the CE-6 landing site, a detailed analysis of the geological background is conducted in this research. The landing site of CE-6 is within the Apollo crater, which is inside the largest impact basin on the Moon, i.e., the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin. According to the numerical simulation of the formation process of the SPA basin, CE-6 landed at the edge of the SPA impact melting zone, which is presumably composed of impact melt of the lunar mantle. The Apollo crater subsequently excavated deep material again, which constitutes the basement of the CE-6 landing area. Later, erupted basalt covered these basement rocks, and they also constitute the main source of the CE-6 samples. Based on the dating method of crater size-frequency distribution, we find that the basalt is ∼2.50 Ga. The CE-6 samples also possibly contain basement rocks as excavated and ejected by craters, and they can provide crucial information for our understanding of lunar geological history along with the basalt samples.

Chang’e-6 (CE-6) is the first sample-return mission from the lunar farside and will be launched in May of 2024. The landing area is in the south of the Apollo basin inside the South Pole Aitken basin. Statistics and analyses of impact craters in the landing area are essential to support safe landing and geologic studies. In particular, the crater size–frequency distribution information of the landing area is critical to understanding the provenance of the CE-6 lunar samples to be returned and can be used to verify and refine the lunar chronology model by combining with the radioisotope ages of the relevant samples. In this research, a digital orthophoto map (DOM) mosaic with resolution of 3 m/pixel of the CE-6 landing area was generated from the 743 Narrow Angle Camera of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. Based on the DOM, craters were extracted by an automated method and checked manually. A total of 770,731 craters were extracted in the whole area of 246 km × 135 km, 511,484 craters of which were within the mare area. Systematic analyses of the crater distribution, completeness, spatial density, and depth-to-diameter ratio were conducted. Geologic model age estimation was carried out in the mare area that was divided into three geologic units according to the TiO₂ abundance. The result showed that the east part of the mare had the oldest model age of $\mu {3.27}_{-0.045}^{+0.036}$ Ga, and the middle part of the mare had the youngest model age of $\mu {2.49}_{-0.073}^{+0.072}$ Ga. The crater catalogue and the surface model age analysis results were used to support topographic and geologic analyses of the pre-selected landing area of the CE-6 mission before the launch and will contribute to further scientific researches after the lunar samples are returned to Earth.

One important scientific objective of China's first Mars mission (Tianwen‐1) is to investigate the martian surface soil characteristics and water‐ice distribution. Layered ejecta craters (LECs) on Mars are characterized by their fluidized ejecta deposits which have been interpreted to indicate volatiles in the substrate where the impact occurred. Thus, they have potential to serve as important planetary exploration sites/targets of geological significance. In this study, we estimated the absolute model ages (AMAs) of 68 LECs with diameters >4 km using the Context Camera (an instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Obiter, MRO) images in the two candidate landing areas of Tianwen‐1 mission, aiming to reveal temporal‐spatial variation of the regional subsurface volatiles, in particular water ice. The results from a combination of the derived AMAs and the ejecta mobility (EM) values for the southern Utopia‐Isidis Planitia (SUIP) and southern Chryse Planitia (SCP) show that the LECs in both regions plausibly have formed throughout the Amazonian and Hesperian periods. However, the subsurface volatile concentrations might have undergone different evolution histories: SUIP shows a relatively stable trend with time, while there seems a general downward trend in SCP. The presence of the fresh ∼1.5‐km‐diameter LECs suggests that volatile concentrations might have been at depth less than 150 m. We conclude with a discussion of recommendations for Tianwen‐1 and future explorations that have the ability to effectively detect any signs of past and present water/ice on Mars, which contain a wealth of information of past and recent climate.